Heroes Call (iPhone, iPad) Free
Last week, Diablo III blazed onto millions of PCs all over the world. There are similar fantasy games on iOS, but few look quite so great as Heroes Call. The free-to-play title has some pretty awesome graphics for a mobile title, and provides plenty of monsters to hack through, loot to gather, and dungeons to explore as it tells a story of heroes and demons.
Heroes Call includes 30 dungeons and more than 40 quests for players to work through, with similar character classes and the same isometric viewpoint as Diablo III. There are also 100 different enemies to kill, and quests are arranged in a different, unique order for each character so that the story plays out differently depending on which class you choose to play.
Empire of the Eclipse (iPhone, iPad) Free
Strategy title Empire of the Eclipse is the kind of in-depth strategy title that doesn’t often make its way into the mobile sphere. It’s an online multiplayer title whose gameplay spans days and weeks, rather than minutes and hours, and has players expanding their interstellar empire by taking over planets and engaging in both diplomacy and conquest in order to expand their territory.
Empire of the Eclipse is a huge game, with its galaxies covering a whole lot of space. It’s free-to-play, but requires a monthly subscription. It also supports a robust in-game email system and has tons of systems for players to learn and immerse themselves in, so once you download it, expect that you’ll be spending quite a bit of time with Empire of the Eclipse.
Nick Jr. Draw & Play (iPhone, iPad) $1.99
Kids who are fans of Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr. TV programming will have lots of fun with Nick Jr. Draw & Play. The app is basically an iOS drawing application, allowing kids to use the touchscreen and combine it with different virtual painting tools to create various works of art. But they can also add elements from their favorite shows, such as characters from Dora the Explorer.
Draw & Play includes 60 different stickers you can add to images, as well as animated tutorials to help teach kids how to draw with the app. It also includes pictures to help inspire kids to create their own works. Draw & Play also allows users to create e-cards and makes use of AirPlay features.
Sports Republic (iPhone, iPad) Free
News aggregator Sports Republic pulls stories about all kinds of different sports from around the world, allowing fans to stay up-to-date on everything from futbol to football, from golf to hockey. With the Olympic Games coming up in July, it’s a good time to snag Sports Republic and keep up with everything about all the sports that interest you.
The app lets you create your own “channels” of content by searching for specific terms, like an athlete’s or team’s name, or an entire sport. You can create multiple channels and sync the app over the Internet to have Sports Republic gather stories about them. You can also share stories and leave comments, search for specific topics, and receive push notifications when new stories come in.
DocSync.net (iPad) Free
Bringing documents from your computer to your iPad is the function of DocSync.net, allowing users to access documents saved on their PCs or Macs, or even on file servers and clouds such as DropBox or Google Docs. It allows you to access image files, PDFs, Office documents and more from your tablet, as long as you have an Internet connection.
DocSync.net also lets you save your documents locally so you can look through them when you don’t have an Internet connection, and includes a search function for quickly looking through everything you have for something specific. You can also create projects through the app and save them to various places, like your cloud drives.
Razor: Salvation (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Aliens have invaded Earth, and it’s your job to provide cover fire so survivors can escape in Razor: Salvation. You play a soldier manning a turret as aliens flood the area from all directions, spinning around in order to shoot at aliens as they come at you and utilizing lots of different weapons to defend yourself.
Razor also includes something of a multiplayer element that allows you to create “factions” with your friends and compete at a group to take the top slots on Razor’s Game Center leaderboards. It also packs iCloud syncing and dynamic enemies that take cover behind objects and make it tougher for you to kill them.
Bee Leader (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Side-scroller Bee Leader is about gathering nectar to make honey. Oh, and you’re a bee – that’s the main part. In the role of a bee, you’ll hover over flowers, grab nectar out of the air, and recruit other smaller bees to your cause. They’ll help you gather more nectar as you fly around in each level; as the sun goes down, you’ll need to double back to your hive and drop off your honey in order to score points.
It’s not just about grabbing nectar in each level, however. There are also hazards to avoid like birds, wasps, electrical storms and more. Bee Leader includes multiple control modes, including touch controls, a virtual joypad and tilt controls. It also packs 12 levels and Game Center support.
Popset update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Photo-sharing app Popset makes it easy to create “sets” of photographs from the images you capture and store on your camera roll. Like other photography apps, Popset lets you apply filters to spiff up your shots, and then allows you to save and share them through Facebook. Unlike other photo-sharing apps, however, Popset allows you to basically save everything you shoot from a specific time or event with one button, because every photo you take after your first is added to the same set.
A recent update to Popset allows you to provide links that let other users join your set, allowing more than one person to send photos to a single set which is perfect for events like weddings and birthdays. You can also upload as many as 20 photos at a time form your camera roll. Popset also provides a super-fast multi-shot camera, so you can get action as it happens from within the app.
Earthlapse (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
The International Space Station is privy to some incredible views of the planet below, and Earthlapse works to make those views available to anyone with a buck and an iPhone or iPad. The app includes eight interactive scenes using time-lapse photography of the Blue Marble as shot from orbit, which you can manipulate using touch controls.
Earthlapse lets you speed up or slow down time in each of its scenes, and each one also includes an ambient soundtrack to go with it. The app also supports AirPlay, so you can view the scenes from Earthlapse on your other devices without any hassle.
Slingshot Racing (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Slingshot Racing is a bit of an anomaly in terms of racing games in the iTunes App Store. Instead of punching the gas and steering around corners like in other racers, Slingshot Racing is all about expert timing. Your racer is on skids and gets its momentum by firing a cable at posts positioned at the track’s corners. When you tap the screen, you fire your cable and slingshot yourself around the corner, letting go at the perfect time for maximum momentum.
Slingshot Racing has 64 races to work through and several different kinds of races. It also includes four-way online multiplayer, so you can challenge your friends to see who has the best slingshot timing. Game Center support also provides achievements and leaderboards, so you can see who among your friends carries the best racing times.
Zombie Ace (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
You play a character who is both zombie and pilot in Zombie Ace, tasked with the mission of infecting as many American cities as possible with the undead affliction. As you fly from city to city in this side-scrolling title, you’ll aim to avoid obstructions ranging from mountains and clouds to yetis, and you’ll also have to fling your fellow zombies at enemy planes to take them down.
Grabbing additional zombies and upgrading your plane lets you land at different cities and infect more and more of their inhabitants. You can also grab power-ups for your plane, add seats for additional zombies, and work through 100 “mission” goals to speed up your advancement through the game. Zombie Ace also packs Game Center support for online leaderboards and achievements.
WhitePages update (iPhone, iPad) Free
You’re probably aware that WhitePages is for finding businesses, and the mobile app that bears that name does exactly that. It helps you find things in your area by searching through its listings and provides the information you need like phone numbers and directions to get to those places, as well.
WhitePages’ big new update focuses on things that are nearby. You can use the app to find nearby businesses of various types in your area, and you can even use the feature to find nearby people and save them to your Contacts List. You can also use WhitePages for reverse address searches, although those require an in-app purchase.
Yahoo! TimeTraveler (iPhone, iPad) Free
Getting around any major city can be a hassle, especially in busy ones with a lot of traffic. Gauging how much time you have to get to a place or trying to figure out what you can accomplish in a day can be difficult. Yahoo! TimeTraveler means helps by calculating travel times through cities based on traffic, distances and other factors, helping you to plan trips with an eye toward how much time you’ll spend getting places, and how much you’ll have left over.
TimeTraveler supports 39 cities at present, and once you input your information – start location, end location and trip destination – it’ll generate directions to get you where you’re trying to go in the best and quickest way possible. You can also share the trips you generate with the app through Facebook and Twitter.
Fruit Ninja update (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Fruit-slicing phenomenon Fruit Ninja just hit its second birthday, and in celebration, developer Halfbrick has pushed a big update that brings new features to the well-loved game. The gameplay is as you remember – players need to slice fruit with their fingers as it flies across the screen, being careful to avoid bombs – but new elements have been added that can change how the game is played and scored.
Fruit Ninja includes a number of new fruits that come up randomly throughout the game and can have various effects. There’s a new area through which players can buy power-ups, and you can also grab new ninja moves like the ability to deflect bombs to keep your game going.
Men in Black 3 (iPhone, iPad) Free
The official game of the upcoming movie, Men in Black 3 tasks players with taking control of the alien-policing agency as a new agent. But it’s also a management simulation game in the vein of titles such as Scarface, in which you’ll complete missions to earn money and use that money to grow the MIB headquarters. Each new building allows you to collect more money and upgrade your agent’s gear, which means you can work through more missions.
Like many free-to-play titles similar to Men in Black 3, how much stuff you can do is governed by your energy reserves, which replenish over time. Working through missions in the game will take you through a similar story arc as what’s coming in the movie, and the game includes a number of familiar characters. It’s also pretty simple and an easy way to kill a few minutes, especially if you’re a fan of the franchise.
Google Search update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Google’s iPhone search app has just received a huge update, reworking the app in a lot of ways to make improvements just about everywhere. Google has redesigned the app’s interface and sped up its ability to pull down search results, and has also added integration with its web apps such as Gmail, Google Drive and Google Calendar.
The new version of Google Search also includes a full-screen image search function, which makes searching for and finding pictures you need a lot easier. You can also search through web pages for text, access pages from within Google Search and then quickly go back to the search menu with a swipe, quickly switching between different types of searches.
Sonar update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Social networking app Sonar is an app built to be taken with you to conventions and other events. It’s specifically designed for close-proximity social interactions, allowing you to locate people you know from all kinds of different places, including Twitter, Facebook and email, but who you might not necessarily have met in regular life. The app detects other app users you know when they come close enough to you, facilitating meetings and “small-world moments.”
For Sonar’s first birthday, the app has received an update that adds status updates for users in the app and also allows you to chat with other people you find on Sonar in real time. You can also sign-in with your Facebook account and leave Sonar to run in the background to allow others to find you; the app has been tweaked so that it does a much better job with battery life.
Infinity Blade II update (iPhone, iPad) $2.99 for a limited time
We previewed the Vault of Tears update to Infinity Blade II pretty extensively earlier this week, but it bears repeating that it’s worth checking out for Infinity Blade fans and players who haven’t yet given the game a shot. Developer ChAIR has added quite a bit to the game, expanding the real-estate through which you’ll play with new areas, dropping lots of new weapons, armor and other loot to find, and infusing the game with a bunch more bad guys with which to battle.
The update also includes new story elements to flesh out the Infinity Blade universe more, and throws in some smaller elements that help to expand the scope of the game. One feature, Treasure Maps, are a minor addition but help break up the game – they display a cryptic image of an object and challenge you to find it and the treasure inside. There’s also new improvements to the social ClashMob system that allow players to interact from social networks Facebook and Twitter, without actually playing.
Defender Chronicles II: Heroes of Athelia (iPhone, iPad) $2.99
Tower defense title Defender Chronicles II takes the standard setup of the genre, which usually sees players creating mazes through which enemies must travel, and literally upends it to create a different sort of presentation. Instead of an overhead view, it uses side-scrolling level design in which enemies move upward through towers and castles in an attempt to reach the top of each. Players fight off enemies to earn money, which they can use to purchase more towers and upgrade them as they fight.
Defender Chronicles II also includes role-playing game elements in the form of special heroes that accompany you through each fight. They can be switched out and also equipped with new weapons and armor to make them more formidable. The game includes five different game modes and lots of world to explore as you play through it, and presents a detailed story using comic panels as cutscenes.
Facebook Pages Manager (iPhone, iPad) Free
Facebook’s latest app has finally hit the iTunes App Store for wide release, making it easy to manage the pages you create on Facebook from wherever you are. Pages Manager provides all the info you’re able to get when logging-in to Facebook from a web browser, including the metrics and analytics Facebook provides that help you see how the outreach of your page is doing.
The thing that makes Pages Manager so handy is that it makes it possible to work with multiple Facebook pages at once. You can easily switch between your pages, check the metrics of all of them, and post on any of them. The app also offers push notifications for when someone posts on your pages.
ZipList update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Grocery shopping app ZipList makes it quick and easy to determine what you need from your next grocery store trip by using the cloud to make it possible for anyone in your family to add items to your list. You can add or remove items from your list with an Internet connection or by text message, in order to make sure you have the most up-to-date list when you hit the store.
Ziplist also includes a web portal with which users can interact and send information to mobile apps, and the developer has just added new features to the web page. Ziplist’s site now includes a meal planner feature, so you can map out your meals for a whole week. Then, you can automatically send lists of ingredients you need for your planned meals to the mobile app to use when build shopping lists.
Sheep Up! (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
You’ll need to hone your tilting skills to work through all the puzzles in Sheep Up! Each level has you playing as a bouncing sheep, directing him from a top-down perspective using accelerometer controls to bounce around grid-based levels to reach a goal in each one. You’ll need to be careful to avoid falling off the side of each stage’s edges, while you also grab keys and use other elements to find your way to the end.
Sheep Up! includes 20 different levels for you to move through, which will test your puzzle-solving skills as well as your reflexes and steady-handedness. You’re scored by the speed with which you solve each level, and you can earn trophies along the way based on how well you do. The game also includes two game modes, the standard puzzle gameplay and a time-attack version.
Rocka Bowling 3D Games (iPhone, iPad) Free
Fans of the popular Wii Bowling game on Nintendo’s motion-controlled game console will get a kick out of Rocka Bowling, because it manages to capture a similar feel in a touchscreen title. The game is simply bowling, allowing you to play alone or with other people, and is controlled by swiping back to lift the ball and forward to throw it. How you move your thumb during the throw determines your aim and whether you can put spin on the throw, hook it, and so on.
Rocka Bowling can be played alone, but it supports up to six players in pass-and-play style. Bowling well also earns you coins that are awarded whenever you score. Rack them up and you can use them to purchase premium items, like better bowling balls, to use in your games.
Mad Wig Out (iPhone, iPad) Free
A promotional app for the third Madagascar movie, Mad Wig Out lets you put clown wigs on the subjects of your photos. The movie has its animal characters finding themselves under the big top, and you can make the people in your photos look like they belong in a clown car or loading themselves into a cannon by adding virtual wigs to the people in the shots.
Once you’ve tossed a rainbow clown wig on the subject of your photos, you can also add characters from the film to your shots. After that, you can save your shots to your camera roll and share them with others through email, Facebook and Twitter.
FlySmart: Be An Airport Insider (iPad) Free
If you find yourself headed to an airport anytime soon, you might want to check out what FlySmart has to offer. The app brings you all kinds of information when you travel, including real-time flight data and push notifications that let you know when your plane is on its way or when it might land. Outside of your own flight information, you can also find out things about the airports where you’ll be staying and find ratings of their amenities.
FlySmart includes information about shops and restaurants in 90 different airports, bringing users listings of what they’ll find in them. It also shows lots of other information, such as parking lot availability, baggage claim locations, weather updates and suggestions of what to do in the areas around those airports.
The Sandbox (iPhone, iPad) Free
You get to play god in a very literal sense in The Sandbox. As a helper of The Creator, your job is to create objects and elements by combining other elements, energy and weather. For example, to grow plants, you’ll first need to use the sun to heat mud; mud requires water and dirt. As you progress step-by-step, you’ll unlock new elements and complete different challenges that allow you to create as you see fit in The Sandbox’s world.
The Sandbox includes 24 missions to play through during the course of the game, and you’ll earn “mana” to buy different elements and items. Once you have your elements, you can craft worlds of your own that can be shared within the app. Just be warned that some players feel the game is designed to force in-app purchases for mana, so the “free” designation might not be so accurate.
Scotland Yard (iPhone, iPad) $4.99
Scotland Yard is a mobile version of the popular board game in which players team up as Scotland Yard detectives on the hunt for another player who takes on the role of Mr. X. Your job is to move around London from station to station, trying to track down Mr. X and capture him in the turn-based game that’s good for as many as six players.
The game is set up so you can even play alone against computer players, and also supports local pass-and-play, Bluetooth multiplayer or online play. It also includes voice chat through Game Center, and has a tutorial mode to teach you how to play quickly and easily at the outset of the game.
Fotopedia Morocco (iPhone, iPad) Free
The latest app in Fotopedia’s releases of apps filled with themed photography comes from Morocco, giving insight into the country that’s hard to get anywhere else. Like Fotopedia’s other apps, Fotopedia Morocco endeavors to bring an understanding of the country of Morocco and its diversity, from oceans to snow-capped mountains. It also shows the lives of its people in an intimate and detailed way that’s hard to get anywhere else.
Fotopedia Morocco includes thousands of photos and includes a feature that allows users to create their own tours of the country using those shots. You can also create free wallpapers for your iPhone or iPad from what’s included in Fotopedia Morocco, share photos across Facebook and Twitter, and create Instant Slideshows so you can see multiple photos quickly and easily on your device.
Kohler (iPhone, iPad) Free
If you’re looking for new fixtures and appliances for your kitchen or bathroom, your iPad can be a handy tool for figuring out what you want and how it’ll look in your house, thanks to a newly released version of Kohler’s iPad app. It’s filled with all of the faucet and toilet company’s products, but what makes it more notably useful are its augmented reality abilities that allow you to see how different fixtures will actually look in your kitchen.
Kohler has also outfitted the app with a 360-degree tour feature that allows you to move through a virtual room outfitted with a number of the company’s products, view different samples in side-by-side comparisons to help you make a decision, and scan bar codes and QR codes to find Kohler products and compare them.
Extinction Squad (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
The cartoonish art style and goofy premises Adult Swim Games are known for are very much a part of Extinction Squad, in which players join Chuck Darwin’s Extinction Squad in an effort to save animals from throwing themselves to their deaths. The trouble is that, after a lost colony of Dodo birds has resulted in their being re-released into the wild all over the world, the birds gaseous emissions are so horrifying that other animals find they no longer want to live. Your job is to save them from their deadly leaps with a trampoline.
In each level of Extinction Squad, you’ll use touch controls to slide the trampoline back and forth around the screen to catch falling animals. The more you catch without missing, the higher your score climbs. Occasionally, bombs will fall as well, which you’ll need to dodge. You can also gather coins to unlock power-ups and new stages, and your scores are tracked on Game Center leaderboards.
Boomlings (iPhone, iPad) Free
Puzzler Boomlings is about match-3 gameplay and careful planning. The game presents you with a grid that’s covered sporadically with square boomlings of different colors. The goal is to make groups of four or more to clear them, and you can slide boomlings around the grid to anywhere so long as there’s a clear path. Mixed throughout are bombs of different colors that can help trigger big combos.
In order to really spike up your scores in Boomlings, you’ll not only need to make groups of all one color, but you’ll want to link those groups to other groups by using bombs. The more boomlings you can clear in a single move, the higher your score, so careful planning is rewarded. More boomlings appear on the grid with every move, however, so you’ll need to act quickly and carefully to succeed.
Thirst for Twitter (iPad) Free
Twitter client Thirst condenses your Twitter feed into an easy-to-read, magazine-like page, providing you with a streamlined look at tweets and a great visual style. You can see your Twitter Timeline along one side, and Thirst will bring all the tweets that interest you into another area, updated as regularly as you decide to check and making full use of your iPad’s screen real estate.
Thirst also breaks out things from links found in your Twitter feed, placing items like news articles and videos in a format that’s easy to view and doesn’t require wandering through your feed to find. You can also see trending topics and easily send updates to your Twitter account.
Snapguide update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Snapguide is an app that lets users share how-to guides they create themselves about a number of topics. You can read step-by-step guides and view photos that teach you how to do all kinds of things, and you can also upload guides of your own to share with others. Once you upload your steps and photos, you can leave and read comments on other guides, as well.
A big update to Snapguide has fixed a number of bugs and issues with the app to make it run better, and also added new features. For one, you can now search through guides by their topics to find things that interest you, and Snapguide has been redesigned in order to show cover photos of featured guides to make them easier to look through.
Cuboid Free (iPhone, iPad) Free
Starting its life as a downloadable title for the PlayStation 3, Cuboid is a puzzle title that requires players to move a rectangular object through a level and drop it in a hole. Each level is a grid with a certain shape and no edges; you’re required to carefully maneuver the cube by flipping it either sideways or end-over-end to get it into the hole. The idea is to move the block to the goal as quickly and efficiently as possible. The fewer moves you use, the better your score.
Cuboid packs 66 puzzles and is ad-supported, so it’s free to download. It has bonus levels players can unlock as they work through the game, and it packs special challenges throughout that have players working to solve puzzles under a certain time limit or in a certain number of moves. There’s also Game Center support that provides achievements and leaderboards.
Bug Assault (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
There are bugs to fend off in Bug Assault, as you might have guessed. To best the hordes of insects streaming toward you, you’ll employ beams of electricity by placing two thumbs on the screen. The current courses between the two points, zapping any bugs in between; you’ll rack up points for nailing combos and avoiding shocking the wrong bugs, but if too many get through, you lose.
You can earn special weapons to help you in your fight against the bugs, and the longer you last, the higher the score you can take down. Coins you grab can be used to purchase upgrades, and you’ll have to destroy special boss bugs along the way in bigger fights, as well. All your progress is tracked on Bug Assault’s Game Center leaderboards.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II (iPhone, iPad) $6.99
Sonic returns in the second installment of Sonic the Hedgehog 4, and this time he’s bringing along his old sidekick Tails to help him take on the evil Dr. Eggman. Sonic 4 is a revisiting of the classic side-scrolling Sonic formula, and Episode II includes a whole new engine for better physics and graphics to go with its updated areas and enemies.
Episode II allows two players to jump into the game, taking on the roles of both Sonic and Tails using a Bluetooth connection between two devices. The game features accelerometer support and has been tailor-made for Apple’s iOS platform. It also packs Game Center support that allows players to access achievements and friends lists.
Circus Atari (iPhone, iPad) Free
Circus Atari is an update of the original Atari 2600 title of the same name from way back in 1980. Reworked for accelerometer controls and iOS devices, Circus Atari today is a tilt-based vertical scroller in which you play a clown trying to climb as high as possible and rack up as many points as he can along the way. As you ascend, you’ll need to hit balloons to keep yourself flying, and snag coins to rack up points.
Circus Atari provides players with a few “safety nets” that can be used as you play to save you from falling and losing the game, and you can unlock new characters as you play through the game. Circus Atari also includes Game Center and OpenFeint support for achievements and leaderboards.
Non Flying Soldiers (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Puzzler Non Flying Soldiers is about directing birds as they move through side-scrolling levels, trying to keep them alive and get them to each level’s goal. In order to solve the puzzles of each level, players need to place objects on the course that send the birds around or over obstacles like slanted barricades or springboards. The key is to direct your birds through each level to collect medals and other items, while avoiding getting electrocuted, roasted, or smashed by spikes.
You’re scored in each level on the items you collect, as well as how quickly you can get all the birds over the goal and on whether you lose any along the way. Non Flying Soldiers includes 3-D graphics and has a pretty funny story going for it as delivered in cutscenes. Its levels can also be solved in a number of ways, depending on your play style.
Missile Monkey (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Physics puzzler Missile Monkey is about popping balloons with the overwhelming force of missiles, as you might imagine. You play a monkey piloting a biplane who can drop missiles on each puzzle level in order to take out the balloons you find there. Those missiles can fall straight like bombs or rocket forward, so you’ll need to use your tools strategically to finish each stage.
The fewer missiles you use to pop all the balloons on a given level, the better your score will be. There are also elements in the game’s environments that you can hit with missiles to destroy balloons and earn points. Missile Monkey includes 80 levels to play through and a smart physics engine to carry the title’s gameplay.
Consmr Barcode Scanner (iPhone, iPad) Free
Next time you head out to the grocery store or drugstore, try bringing along Consmr Barcode Scanner and start doing a little research about the things that you buy. Consmr allows you to scan the barcodes of products you find in the supermarket and instantly pull up information about that product, specifically in the form of consumer reviews, which can help you determine what you want to buy and what you don’t.
Consmr brings user reviews as well as ratings across a number of categories, and if you find something while scanning, you can leave a review of the product yourself to help out others. It’s also possible to search for products by their various details, such as gluten-free, in the app, and you can use Consmr to browse for and find alternatives to whatever products you might scan that you determine you don’t actually want.
eBay Fashion update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Search through eBay’s huge amount of clothing and accessory listings on the auction service’s website with the help of eBay Fashion. The app is specifically geared for the fashion-minded, helping users to search through millions of different items and buy anything you might like. The app also includes exclusive flash sales for users, and makes finding things easy based on its image search capabilities. You might use images related to an item you’re checking out to find something even better.
eBay Fashion just received a big update that adds new search capabilities, adding a lot of accessories and jewelry to the app’s already extensive catalog. It also has undergone some improvements to its user interface, and includes new abilities to share items and even sales on Twitter, Facebook, instant message and email.
Monster Shooter: The Lost Levels (iPhone, iPad) $2.99
As you might expect, there are monsters that need shooting in Monster Shooter: The Lost Levels, and you’re just the purple alien-looking character to do it. Monster Shooter is a twin-stick shooting game in which players are tasked with taking down scores of squid-alien bad guys, using a host of different weapons. You’ll gain experience to “level up” your character and add new special abilities and traits to yourself, while also procuring new weaponry.
Monster Shooter packs 60 levels and weapons that can be upgraded repeatedly to make them more powerful. It also packs more than 100 “missions,” or small-scale objectives that help keep players focused and get them leveling up faster. There’s also Game Center support, which provides online leaderboards as well as more than 80 achievements.
RPG Dragons Odyssey Frane (iPhone, iPad) $11.99
A role-playing game in the classic Japanese style of games such as those in the Final Fantasy series, Dragons Odyssey Frane puts players in a 16-bit world that’s packed with high production values, including full voice work for the game’s extensive story. Like other Japanese RPGs, Dragons Odyssey is heavy on story and includes turn-based combat.
You’ll pick your characters’ moves when fighting monsters by making choices from a menu, and strategy and item management are key to success again bad guys that range from small random bad guys to massive bosses. Dragons Odyssey also includes hand-drawn graphics and hours of gameplay through which players can work.
UpNext Maps (iPhone, iPad) Free
Your iOS device’s Maps app might be handy, but it won’t give you a real idea of what an area or a city looks like. UpNext Maps, on the other hand, might. It provides 3-D maps that can be manipulated and rotated, showing users cityscapes and venues as they really look, in full three-dimensional glory. You can also see buildings up close or inside.
All of UpNext’s maps are fully searchable to find whatever it is you’re looking for in each city, and you can tap on buildings to get further details about what businesses and venues are inside. Users can also get navigation and driving directions through cities. Right now, UpNext doesn’t cover every city, so you’ll want to check to make sure the cities you want mapped are included.
Word Dynamo by Dictionary.com (iPhone, iPad) Free
Educational game Word Dynamo is designed to help students master the English language by putting the huge database of words and definitions of Dictionary.com at students’ disposal. The game presents a word and various definitions, requiring players to choose the correct ones. You can also pick through categories to get questions on different words and boost your vocabulary in those areas.
Word Dynamo lets you browse through Dictionary.com’s massive word database to help you teach yourself and expand your vocabulary, and you can track your progress learning and how well you score in games from a personalized dashboard within the app. You can even use the app to prepare for standardized tests, such as the GRE and SAT.
Kotomon (iPhone, iPad) $2.99
Action-adventure title Kotomon is about befriending and capturing monsters and using them to fight off enemies. Each level of the game has players cracking open eggs and freeing different monsters, which they can then pick up and throw to combat other enemies. Every monster has different abilities for smashing enemies, so you’ll need to use each one in the right context to pound through bad guys and get the best score possible.
Your score is based on taking out enemies, and the best way to really rack up the highest scores is to take down slews of enemies at once to gather combos and snag bonus points. You’ll control your character, Kotomon, but dragging your finger around the bottom of the screen, and fire your monsters by tapping the screen with some really simple touch controls.
Juggernaut: Revenge of Sovering (iPhone, iPad) Free
A classic turn-based role-playing title, Juggernaut: Revenge of Sovering puts players in the role of an adventuring hero to fight off monsters and take down a world-threatening demon. Each level has players slicing past monsters, gathering money and items to buy purchase better and better gear and increase your abilities to make yourself more powerful.
Juggernaut includes five characters to choose from and more than 100 enemies to fight off. The developers boast more than 30 hours of gameplay, great 3-D graphics and 12 different armor classes to use to customize your characters and strengthen them. Juggernaut also includes Game Center support for achievements, and some huge boss battles to deal with along the way.
MusicBunk! (iPhone, iPad) Free
Social music app MusicBunk! is for people who want to know what their friends are listening to and hope to learn about new artists and songs by doing so. The app lets you see the playlists created by friends and the songs they’re listening to, and allows you to post comments, send them to Facebook and Twitter, and check out new music straight from the app.
MusicBunk! also helps you to find people who have similar tastes in music to you – called your Music Match – with the idea that those are people you’ll with whom you’ll be able to talk, connect, and share music insight. That way, you can learn about new things from people who like the same things as you. Facebook integration also allows you to quickly find people on MusicBunk! and connect with them.
LaLa Lunchbox (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
LaLa Lunchbox aims to make a parent’s job of planning and packing lunches for kids a bit easier. The app lets kids choose what they want in their lunches, choosing from a preset selection, and gives them the ability to plan those lunches for the whole week. The choices available include lots of different fruits, vegetables and proteins, and the app is meant to teach kids about the importance of balanced meals while making the lunch planning process fun for them.
Virtual lunchboxes can be customized by kids to include things like monsters and other goofy additions to add to the fun factor, and parents have the ability to set which foods are available choices for each lunch each day. LaLa Lunchbox also makes grocery shopping for lunches easier and, in theory, helps save money because with kids choosing what they want to eat, there’s less chance that they’ll be wasting food when they get lunch items they don’t like.
Wawa Land (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Nintendo’s famous side-scrolling platformers like the Game Boy’s Super Wario Land are likely never going to see a mobile release, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t similar titles that are just as good already in the iTunes App Store. Wawa Land will remind gamers of the aforementioned Wario adventure with its similar mechanics, but it also is a fun and competent platformer in the vein of old-school Mario games and manages to capture the fun of those titles.
As Wawa, players adventure through levels collecting coins, jumping on enemies and grabbing different hats that give them special powers. The developers promise four hours of gameplay for your buck right now, and content updates are planned for the future that will increase that to as many as 12 hours of stuff to do. Levels are full of hidden objectives to find, and your progress and scores are tracked through Game Center.
Casino by Zeniz (iPhone, iPad) Free
Created by the United States Playing Card Company, the company behind such brands as Bicycle playing cards, comes Casino by Zeniz, a free-to-play casino game that includes the ever-popular Texas Hold’em and a mode that lets you team up with your friends to go up against the One-Armed Bandit. The game puts you in a virtual casino and hands you some chips, allowing you to sit down at a poker table against other players from all over the world. Games are divided by skill level and allow players to choose if they want larger or smaller games to compete in against others.
There’s also a cooperative multiplayer slots mode, in which as many as five players can team up to unlock bonuses as they play the virtual slot machines. There are also slot tournaments you can play in competitively through Casino by Zeniz as well, and the game features a number of different tournament styles depending on what you want to play and how much time you have to commit.
RoadNinja update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Travel app Road Ninja is designed to help you get the most out of road trips by making them easier on you. The app keeps track of where you are using your iOS device’s GPS capabilities, and then uses that information to scan for restaurants, gas stations, points of interest and other stops you might make along the way to your destination, making it easy to find what you want and need exactly when you want or need it.
Road Ninja just received a big update that includes a new user interface and the addition of new features. Probably the most useful is the inclusion of gas prices on the maps it provides, but the app also includes the ability to access Google Street View pictures of venues and other locations. It also has undergone some handy bug fixes to make the whole experience better.
Flipbook HD (iPad) $4.99
If you’re interested in animation, you’ll want to check out Flipbook HD. The drawing app turns your iPad into an animation studio, allowing you to draw your cartoons on the app and then animate them with simple-to-use touch controls. You can also import videos and other elements to add to or fill out your work.
Flipbook HD allows you to draw your animation frame by frame, or edit the video created by it by adjusting elements and keyframes. When you’re finished with the whole project, you can share it using email, saving it to your camera roll or sharing it on flipbook.tv. You can also take stills of frames from within the animation and share those, too.
Gene Effect (iPhone, iPad) $4.99
A side-scrolling action-adventure title, Gene Effect puts you in the role of the captain of a small mining vessel and rescue ship, exploring a distant planet. Your goal in each level is to explore the underground caverns in which you work, as well as bring back artifacts, fossils and various kinds of ore. Navigating the caves quickly and efficiently and finding and extracting resources count toward your score and allow you to earn trophies in each stage.
Gene Effect is also about exploration, and as the story unfolds the game becomes about more than just mining. You can also unlock secrets to upgrade your ship and explore the planet to which you’ve been sent. Gene Effect includes 25 music tracks you can unlock for performing well throughout the game, too.
Hareep (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Puzzler Hareep is about helping a bird reach its nest and babies by crossing a dangerous grid littered with deadly obstacles. Each level is a complex puzzle in which you’ll have to gather elements that allow you to circumvent each obstacle, among them laser beams and bombs. As you tap around each level, Hareep will pick up cards that allow it to place things like mirrors to reflect lasers or wrenches to rotate objects.
The difficulty starts out pretty high and stays there, requiring players to carefully move around each level while bouncing lasers to explode bombs and clearing the bird’s path. The game features 45 levels when you download it and more can be purchased, and it also packs a level editor that allows you to create your own stages and share them with other players.
N.O.V.A. 3 – Near Orbital Vanguard Alliance (iPhone, iPad) $6.99
Gameloft’s popular first-person shooter series is back in N.O.V.A. 3, expanding the story and refining the gameplay of the titles that take a lot of inspiration from the Xbox video game series Halo. It’s been four months since the events of N.O.V.A. 2, and protagonist Kal Wardin has to go back to war against his old adversaries, the Volterites. Once again, players have to pick up a number of guns and take the fight to numerous enemies in this run-and-gun shooter.
Like its predecessor, N.O.V.A. 3 includes accelerometer controls for aiming, as well as control-stick controls and touch-centric options. It also has an extensive online multiplayer mode, with six multiplayer modes and matches that support up to 12 players. The graphics have been improved, and this time around, N.O.V.A. 3 includes vehicles in its multiplayer mode that teammates can share to bring them to bear against one another.
LostWinds2: Winter of the Melodias (iPhone, iPad) $3.99
Last year, the beautiful side-scrolling platformer LostWinds made the jump from the Nintendo Wii console to iOS, to a relatively warm reception, especially once it got its controls tuned for touchscreens. Now a second title in the LostWinds franchise has been released, and it builds on the wind-controlling platforming gameplay of the first game by adding the ability to control seasons, which is key to solving LostWinds2’s puzzles.
You’ll be able to switch the seasons of the world between summer and winter in order to make progress through LostWinds2, although each season brings with it unique challenges. You’ll endeavor to keep from freezing to death during the winters, for example, and have to brave troubles like bodies of water in the summers. The game also includes a new character to join the adventure and Game Center support for friends lists and achievements.
Penny Time (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Another side-scrolling title, Penny Time has more in common with endless runners than platforms. Based on the Australian line of skateboards, the game has you riding through environments frozen in time, and requires players to dodge obstacles with one of three swipe-based moves that help score points. Jumping over or sliding under obstacles racks up your score, and timing your moves perfectly earns you the best scores.
Penny Time has a great 3-D art style and simple but intuitive swipe controls that determine your movements over obstacles. Its soundtrack also reacts to your input as you dodge obstacles. As you move through each level, you’ll rack up points and multipliers, but lose your score if you hit anything. Once you get through the level, you can choose to cash in your points or hold on to them through the next round for a chance to rack up even higher scores.
This Could Hurt (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
This Could Hurt puts you in the role of a character charged with navigating a maze of deadly traps to prove his worth. The 3-D title has a really simple set of controls: since your character moves automatically, all you need to do is touch the screen and stop him. Timing is everything, so stopping to let traps fire and clear your path is key to surviving and scoring points.
You’re graded on each level in This Could Hurt by how quickly and efficiently you get through. You want to avoid getting hit by anything for a perfect run, but you don’t want to be overly cautious because you’re being timed. There are also power-ups you can find or purchase that can help you navigate each stage. When you finish each one, you can check your abilities against players all over the world with This Could Hurt’s Game Center leaderboards.
Carnac the Magnificent (iPhone, iPad) $1.99
See if you’re as good as Johnny Carson’s famous psychic character Carnac the Magnificent with an app that features The Tonight Show host doing the classic bit. You can play along with Carnac has he attempts to divine the messages hidden in “hermetically sealed” envelopes based on clues included with them.
Carnac the Magnificent is filled with vintage Tonight Show footage for users to enjoy that feature Carson’s performances as Carnac. You can also share jokes and other elements included in the app with users through social networking interactivity.
Decide Shopping & Price Predictor update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Figure out what to buy and when with Decide Shopping & Price Predictor, an app that monitors pricing in things such as electronics and advises you on whether you should spend your money or wait. Decide Shopping includes price predictions on a number of products and allows you to set trackers on different products so that when a price drops, you’re notified.
A recent big update optimizes Decide Shopping for use with the iPad. If you’re an iPad user, Decide Shopping also includes a feature called Got Your Back, which uses a huge number of price points to bring you deals for when products are seeing big discounts, and provides a guarantee to refund users the difference of a price should it provide faulty information.
Pandemic 2.5 (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
The world sits in peace and ignorance at the beginning of strategy title Pandemic 2.5, and that’s when you’re called in to destroy it. You play a super-deadly pathogen and it’s your job to mutate in such a way as to infect the entire world. It’s no easy task, because the governments of humanity will do everything in their power to stop you, from working on vaccines to closing their boarders, airports and ports to prevent infection.
As Pandemic goes on, you’ll earn more and more EvoPoints that you can apply to mutating your disease to make it more effective. If a country closes its borders, you can mutate to make your disease infect animals or take to water. You’ll also have to balance your disease’s effectiveness with how visible – and thus easy to avoid – it is. Game Center support lets you track your scores on worldwide leaderboards.
Tower of Fortune (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Tower of Fortune is part old-school role-playing title, part Tiger Electronics-style handheld. It’s a highly simplified RPG experience, but at the same time, manages to be interesting and engaging in a five-minutes-at-a-time sort of way. As a hero trying to rescue his daughter, you’ll need to scale the Tower of Fortune and defeat monsters along the way, using a specialized slot-machine style of gameplay.
Advancing up the tower requires you to defeat monsters and earn money to unlock new areas. You’ll also earn new equipment to help you along the way and increase your character’s abilities. The game contains multiple randomized “quests” to complete, and you can unlock three different endings through the course of the game as well.
YP Local Search & Gas Prices update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Find local businesses of all kinds in your area with YP Local Search & Gas Prices, an app that users your iOS device’s GPS capabilities to search the area around you for exactly that for which you’re looking. The app leverages the power of Yellow Pages to find all kinds of businesses by allowing you to search by name, category, location and more. It also has a ratings system, helping you to see the quality of an establishment as judged by other users before you patronize it.
The latest update to YP Local Search throws in a handy new feature if you’re trying to decide which restaurant to which you want to go. The app can now search through the menus of thousands of restaurants – allowing you to determine precisely if the restaurant you’re considering has what you want, or where to head to find exactly what you’re craving.
Personal Capital update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Financial app Personal Capital is a one-stop location for all your financial information, no matter how many accounts of various types you might have. By integrating all your accounts and information into the app, you can easily set budgets, see where your bank accounts are, keep track of transactions in order to prevent fraud, and keep an eye on your investments to see how they’re performing at any given time.
Personal Capital’s latest update adds a new capability for iPhone users that allows them to send checks from within the app, which means you can actually pay people electronically from any account linked to Personal Capital. All you have to do is write a physical check and snap a photo of it, and you can send the check digitally to whomever you need to pay. You can also use the app to talk with an investment advisor about what you should do with your money.
Ballistic SE (iPhone, iPad) $1.99
Shooter Ballistic SE takes a page from a lot of similar games such as Tilt to Live and the popular Geometry Wars. It’s based on a grid, where players move around an object that serves as their ship, which fires endlessly into crowds of evil geometric shapes that hurtle endlessly toward them in an attempt to destroy the players. Shooting is the only way to stay alive, and ratcheting up a high score means deftly dodging the enemies as they fly at you in huge numbers and various patterns.
Ballistic SE includes five different gameplay modes to work through, and has multiple enhancements and power-ups you can earn as you continue to grab higher and higher scores. It also includes iCloud support, allowing you to take your game with you on whatever device you choose, and Game Center support so you can compare your skills to other players over international leaderboards.
Grem Legends (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Grem Legends is a lot like the old classic Missile Command, a game in which players took on the role of a stationary gun that fired rounds into the air to stop falling missiles. Instead of a futuristic military feel, Grem Legends goes for a high-fantasy setting and gives players a bow and arrows to take down falling gremlins bent on destroying human villages. Tapping around the screen allows players to take out advancing enemies with one of two heroes, an archer and a wizard, each with a different style of attack.
There are six story chapters to play through in Grem Legends, and managing your limited amount of magic and arrows is key to making your way through all of them and keeping the gremlins from chomping on villagers’ huts. The game also includes an endless mode for each chapter that allows players to see how long they can last against wave after wave of gremlins.
Ban.jo update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Social networking app Ban.jo leverages lots of other social networks, such as foursquare and Facebook, to help you get a picture of what’s going on around you, no matter where you are. It uses check-ins and events to find things like parties, live music and more, locking-on to your location using your iOS device’s GPS capabilities. The idea is that you’ll never be wondering what to do on a given day or night, because you’ll be able to see what your friends are up to and where, and potentially join them.
Updates to Ban.jo include the ability to map the check-ins of your social network friends to see what they’re doing and where they are, and more connectivity with Facebook to make it easy to save and share photos from your exploits. You can also block other users with whom you might not want to associate using the app’s chat features.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotels and Resorts (iPhone, iPad) Free
The official app of Ritz-Carlton is your booking agent and concierge whenever you stay in one of the company’s hotels or resorts. You can make your reservations from within the app for any of the company’s resorts around the world, and the app also contains local guide information to help you find food, local businesses, and night life while you stay.
You can browse full hotel information from the app and even see photos so you can make decisions about where you want to stay, and the app also includes information about any events that are taking place where you’re staying. You can also see recommendations and tips for the cities in which you’re staying and the hotels from which you have to choose.
The King of Fighters-i 2012 (iPhone, iPad) $6.99
Fighting game The King of Fighters recently was ported to iOS, and the newly released King of Fighters-i 2012 expands on the original, adding fighters and optimizing controls for Apple’s iOS devices. The most notable addition to the new King of Fighters is Wi-Fi multiplayer, allowing you to take on players from all over the world in SNK’s 2-D fighting game. The game’s new roster also includes 32 different fighters from which to choose when you go to take on opponents.
Like the previous King of Fighters, 2012 includes six single-player game modes. Players can go into one-on-one fights with computer characters or up the stakes in three-on-three team battles. You can also download additional characters through in-app purchase, and King of Fighters-i 2012 is packed with additional content, like trading cards. It also features Game Center support.
Rocket Fox (iPhone, iPad) Free
Puzzler Rocket Fox is about rockets and the special flowers that launch them. The game has you assuming the role of Guy Fox, a puzzle-solving animal whose job is to bounce around each level in the game, landing on rocket flowers in order to launch himself into the air. Solving each level requires landing on and launching all the rockets, and players use tilt controls to send Guy to the next flower as he gets launched into the air.
You’re scored in each Rocket Fox level on how efficiently you clear out the flowers and how much “foxfire” you can gather from each one, which you grab by tapping and which you can use to buy power-ups to increase your score.
Weebly (iPhone, iPad) Free
We’ve discussed apps for making apps on Appolicious, but what about apps for making websites? Weebly is just such a piece of software and is designed to make the process of creating a simple website or blog extremely easy and mobile. The app has you pick a theme, add a few elements like photos, text and videos, choose your web address, and that’s it.
Weebly includes a fairly intuitive drag-and-drop interface, so you can design your website with a touchscreen, rather than with code. It won’t be able to do everything, obviously, but if you’re looking to create a quick blog, Weebly can get the job done for you. It also includes Facebook and Twitter integration to make sharing your site’s posts extremely quick and easy.
Libon Voicefeed – a smarter voicemail (iPhone, iPad) Free
The idea behind Libon Voicefeed is that having a single, generic voicemail message for every situation might not be the option that everyone wants to go with. So the app allows you to customize the voicemail message left for different people who contact you, much like you can assign a photo to each phone number stored in your iPhone’s contact list. It also has a number of handy voicemail features, such as text transcriptions of your messages.
Libon Voicefeed offers visual voicemail, allowing you to see each of your messages on a menu rather than having to listen through to hear them all. You can set customized greetings for as many as three groups of contacts, and Libon Voicefeed will send you email alerts and push notifications when you receive messages. The app even has a “message context” feature that will show you what your contact is posting to social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, around the same time they’re calling you, to give you a (somewhat creepy) window into what’s going on.
Robbery Bob (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Stealth puzzler Robbery Bob is about stealing, sure, but it’s still a cartoonish and kid-friendly take on being a burglar. The stuff you snag in each of Robbery Bob’s levels is worth a dollar or less, and most people wouldn’t want it anyway. Even so, your job is to keep from being seen by old ladies wielding rolling pins and other guards, working to sneak around each top-down level while grabbing the loot, avoiding detection and getting out quickly.
Where you go and how you get there are key to solving each of Robbery Bob’s puzzles. You’ll need to stay out of sight by picking the right paths through each building, but you’ll also need to decide if slow and sneaky or loud and fast is the right option for each situation. The game rates you on your speed, loot take and avoidance of guards for each stage, and you can check your skills against others on Robbery Bob’s Game Center leaderboards.
Dreamworks Dragons: TapDragonDrop (iPhone, iPad) $1.99
A storm has freed and scattered all the sheep living in your Viking village in Dreamworks Dragons: TapDragonDrop, and it’s your job to use your dragon to help wrangle them in this puzzler. Based on Dreamworks’ film How To Train Your Dragon, the game features characters from the movie and requires you to issue orders to your dragon to execute various “moves” in order to drive the sheep back home. You’ll need to roar to get them moving, burn down trees to clear a path and be careful not to send them over cliffs.
Dreamworks Dragons includes 40 levels to play through, and there are hidden Viking artifacts scattered throughout several of the stages that can unlock special “hero” levels. You’re scored in each level by how efficiently you can deal with the sheep and get them where they need to go, and you’ll be able to track your progress and scores on Dreamworks Dragons’ Game Center leaderboards.
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (iPhone, iPad) $4.99
Licensed LEGO games are pretty big on video game consoles and PCs, but the iOS versions of the LEGO Harry Potter series are pretty solid proof that mobile devices can do a pretty good job of standing up to their bigger counterparts. Years 5-7 plays out the story elements of the last three films and the last three years of Harry Potter’s time at Hogwarts, culminating in the battle with Voldemorte in a 3-D, third-person action game.
In addition to the storyline to play through, LEGO Harry Potter includes a new “duel” mode in which you’ll take on other wizards in one-on-one magic fights. Beating the mode’s various bosses opens them up as characters for you to use. The game also tracks your play time and completion percentage and ranks you on Years 5-7’s Game Center leaderboards.
Brainsss (iPhone, iPad) $2.99
If you like sending your troops into battle in strategy games, you should check out Brainsss, a top-down action game that puts you in control of the menacing zombie hordes as they terrorize a town. Your goal is to capture and convert all the humans on each level, and to do so, you’ll need to think strategically, because you don’t want them to escape your relatively slow-moving zombies. The solution is to split your forces, sending them to block off humans and kill them.
As you progress through Brainsss, you’ll have to find different ways of dispatching humans as you work to force them into corners and surround them. The game throws new kinds of people at you as you progress, such as fast-moving scientists or deadly police officers, so finding the best way to approach each situation is important. Game Center support tracks your scores and speed on each level to compare with players all over the world.
My Little Hero (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
The Boogeyman has stolen your best friend, but as a young boy with a wooden sword and a cardboard helmet, you’re not going to stand for that. Thus begins the quest in My Little Hero, a third-person action game that’s similar in some respects to The Legend of Zelda and other action-RPG titles. You’ll hack and slash through 3-D levels as you search for the Boogeyman, collecting buttons from fallen enemies and searching for collectibles.
My Little Hero includes four worlds through which players will trek, and you’ll be able to find and upgrade new weapons and armor to increase your strength level as you progress through the game. You’ll also have to fight off the Boogeyman’s boss characters along the way, and work to find and snag some 31 collectibles hidden throughout the game.
Victorian Mysteries: Woman in White (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Point-and-click hidden object title Victorian Mysteries: Woman in White is likely going to challenge you with its puzzles. Progressing through the game’s story means completing its various puzzles; searching for the objects off a list in a single large image, for example. You’ll also find your brain tested, as well as your eyes, as you explore the game’s Victorian mansion in search for answers to what is going on, as well as the identity of the Woman in White.
Victorian Mysteries: Woman in White is based on the intriguing story of the classic novel by Wilkie Collins. It also includes some 45 unique environments through which players will search to find hidden artifacts and clues as to what happened in the mansion.
Room 77 update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Travel app Room 77 helps users find cheap hotels by searching through 130,000 different hotels, allowing you to find the best rooms in different lodgings, the best prices, and the best locations. You can use the app to book your stay and even share photos of the rooms you land with friends through the app.
Room 77’s also includes a new App Concierge feature that lets users find out the quality of their rooms before they stay in them. The app’s developers have added lots more hotels to search and increased the search feature’s speed, so users should find Room 77 a lot easier to get rooms booked and ready whenever they travel.
MarketShark – Stock Fundamentals (iPhone, iPad) $19.99
Investment tool MarketShark is designed to make it easier for investors to make informed decisions about the stocks they want to buy. It’s the only investment tool in the iTunes App Store that goes beyond pricing trends to look at the value of different companies, providing deeper and more detailed information to potential investors.
MarketShark offers full portfolio tracking and allows users to look through all kinds of different statistics and information about various stocks. It will also visualize trends so you can see how stocks are performing over time and provide comparisons to see how companies stack up against one another. You can customize the app’s organization and it has universal support for both iPhone and iPad.
Ski Safari (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
An avalanche has just slammed into your ski lodge in Ski Safari, and you need to outrun its deadly downhill flow in order to survive. Your only weapon is speed, and in order to keep ahead of the falling snow, you’ll need to dodge rocks and other obstructions, do backflips to gain boosts and even ride penguins, Yetis and other objects and animals to maximize your speed.
The farther you get in Ski Safari, like all endless running titles, the higher your score will be. Catching penguins, Yetis and other animals will protect you from crashing and falling momentarily, and the more animals you catch and backflips you perform, the more multipliers you can rack-up to notch an even higher score. Then you can compare your performance to that of other players thanks to Game Center support.
Zombro (iPhone, iPad) Free
Side-scrolling puzzle platformer Zombro puts players in the role of a zombie who’s trying to cross the United States, starting in the state of Washington and heading down the West Coast. To get where he’s going, he’ll need to navigate obstacles such as pits and platforms, but given that he’s a zombie, Zombro’s not too coordinated. In order to solve each level’s puzzles, players need to split Zombro into his component parts – his legs can jump, his torso can adjust switches, and so on.
Zombro includes 50 puzzle levels for players to work through, and in addition to the levels that are available in the game for free, there are more that can be snagged through in-app purchases of $0.99 each. Zombro also includes Game Center support that allows players to track achievements and scores using online leaderboards.
Tweetbot update (iPhone, iPad) $2.99
One of the slicker Twitter apps available in the iTunes App Store, Tweetbot makes it easy for users to keep up-to-date with their Twitter accounts, even if they have more than one. It’s optimized for touch controls to make it easy to use with commands like swipes and taps, and supports all the sort of updating abilities you’d expect from Twitter on your web browser.
New improvements to Tweetbot include the ability to see in-line conversations when you and others reply to tweets, a function that Twitter on the web affords but the app has been lacking. You can email tweets now and the app supports other services, such as Droplr. The user interface has been tweaked and lots of the controls have also been tightened, so it’s easier to get back to your timeline from other areas of the app, and see more of your Twitter feed faster.
Dictionary!! (iPhone, iPad) $3.99
Dictionary!! (The Free Dictionary PRO) provides a huge dictionary that users can access through the Internet to find words and definitions. This Pro version of the app affords lots of features that users can’t get with the free version. Probably the most notable is full offline support for the dictionary, allowing users full use of the resource without the need for a Wi-Fi or 3G Internet connection.
Thirteen foreign language dictionaries are also included in Dictionary!! as well as the ability to translate words from English into 40 different languages, and vice versa, all without needing to connect to the Internet. If you can connect to the Internet, Dictionary!! will also give you access to encyclopedias, audio translations for different words, special dictionaries such as medical, legal and financial, and a few word-related games.
Hambo (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Taking a page from Angry Birds and Fragger is Hambo, a game in which you play a pig rather than quest to destroy them, although you still take down enemy pigs. Like Angry Birds, you’ll need to use physics to take out enemy soldiers, taking careful aim with various weapons to take the pigs out either with direct shots or ricochets. The goal is to use as few shots as possible by paying attention to each level’s setup and figuring out how best to take down your foes for maximum points.
Hambo includes more than 200 levels, and in each one you’ll earn coins you can spend on things such as different costumes for your pig supersoldier. The game also includes iPod support, so you can play it with your own music, and Game Center support for leaderboards and achievements.
Saving Private Sheep 2 (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Another physics puzzler of a barnyard persuasion is Saving Private Sheep 2, although where Hambo adjusts the rules of similar games by changing players’ weapons, Saving Private Sheep 2 adds multiple steps to each animal-flinging puzzle. Your goal in each level is to fire a spiky hedgehog at an offending wolf to force him to cough up a sheep he has swallowed, and to do so, you need to pass each hedgehog carefully between sheep soldiers so they can line up a clear shot.
Scattered through each level are coins and stars that you can snag with your hedgehog with several careful shots, so Saving Private Sheep 2 takes on an air of exploration if you want to get the best scores. The game includes 66 levels players can work through, plus a level editor that allows you to make your own stages and share them with others, and vice versa.
